Economy

Reporter Patrick Kingsley followed in the left-foot only footsteps of his New York Times colleague, Peter Goodman, in finding child “hunger” in the United Kingdom and blaming it on “gleeful” austerity by the ruling Conservatives, in Wednesday’s “Touring World’s Fifth-Richest Nation for Lessons on Poverty.” A Times’ front page from September warned, “Warning Sign in Leaner Times: Hungry Children.”

We are about to find out whether Democrats meant it when they lamented the loss of civility in Washington. Having won the majority in the House of Representatives in Tuesday's election, will they cooperate with Republicans and "reach across the aisle," or will they pander to their base, which wants President Trump's blood? Guess which scenario I'm betting on Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), who will likely head the Financial Services Committee, has promised to seek revenge on the banks, which she notes loaned money to people in the '90s so they could buy houses they couldn't afford.

In describing the GOP tax cuts, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said that they and bonuses American workers were getting were "crumbs." They were "tax cuts for the rich." Some argued that the tax cuts would reduce revenues. Pelosi predicted, "This thing will explode the deficit." How about some tax facts?

At the nation’s top two Hispanic television networks, the annual “Day of the Dead” celebrations were more important than tens of thousands of Latinos in the U.S. getting jobs, and driving unemployment among Latinos to yet another record low.

As voters head to the polls this Election Day, one thing on many of their minds is the U.S. economy. They just haven’t seen much of it on the network news.

The liberal media know the economy is one of the top issues for voters, yet broadcast network evening shows provided scant coverage of it the week before the elections in spite of an 18-year-high for consumer confidence and a 250,000 jobs report.

With the election looming, the addition of a quarter million new jobs in October, grabbed headlines. But NBC Nightly News gave more than twice as much attention to the hot topic of celebrating Hollywood’s movie rating system.

With one week to the midterm elections, the Conference Board released its latest survey of consumers showing their confidence soared to an 18-year high and also found high expectations for early 2019. This might well surprise many news consumers given how little effort the media have spent reporting on the good economy.

Thirteen states -- Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia -- have enacted laws to combat what is seen as price gouging in the wake of natural disasters. Price gouging is legally defined as charging 10 to 25 percent more for something than you charged for it during the month before an emergency. Sellers convicted of price gouging face prison terms and fines.

Although there were huge benefits to the 2017 tax cuts including a rise in take-home pay for a majority of American wage earners’ and hiring or investment expansions at hundreds of companies, many liberals are calling for tax hikes. Just don’t expect the networks to spell that out for voters.

As difficult as it may be to believe, there was a time when Republicans were known as the anti-debt and balanced budget party. Now, the GOP prefers to tout low unemployment as the debt soars and they are co-conspirators in its rise. It's not that Republicans (and once-fiscally responsible Democrats) lack a way out of debt; it's that they lack the will. Both parties, but especially Republicans, fear a backlash from voters if they cut spending, much less make actual reductions.

The stock markets were volatile in October, including an all-time Dow Jones Industrial Average high and some “major” falls. Unfortunately, the broadcast networks preferred to show the bad side of the economy.

The network evening news shows focused on the “major selloff” and “meltdown” on Oct. 10 and 11 and ignored a record high on Oct. 3, as well as a 500-plus point gain on Oct. 16.

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